-12.50(-0.97%)

-0.25(-1.58%)

-0.0001(-0.0114%)

What You Must Know About China Auto Logistics Inc’s (NASDAQ:CALI) Market Risks

If you are a shareholder in China Auto Logistics Inc’s (NASDAQ:CALI), or are thinking about investing in the company, knowing how it contributes to the risk and reward profile of your portfolio is important. The beta measures CALI’s exposure to the wider market risk, which reflects changes in economic and political factors. Not all stocks are expose to the same level of market risk, and the market as a whole represents a beta value of one. Any stock with a beta of greater than one is considered more volatile than the market, and those with a beta less than one is generally less volatile.

An interpretation of CALI’s beta

China Auto Logistics’s five-year beta of 2.11 means that the company’s value will swing up by more than the market during prosperous times, but also drop down by more in times of downturns. This level of volatility indicates bigger risk for investors who passively invest in the stock market index. Based on this beta value, CALI will help diversify your portfolio, if it currently comprises of low-beta stocks. This will be beneficial for portfolio returns, in particular, when current market sentiment is positive.

Could CALI’s size and industry cause it to be more volatile?

CALI, with its market capitalisation of US$13.65M, is a small-cap stock, which generally have higher beta than similar companies of larger size. In addition to size, CALI also operates in the specialty retail industry, which has commonly demonstrated strong reactions to market-wide shocks. So, investors should expect a larger beta for smaller companies operating in a cyclical industry in contrast with lower beta for larger firms in a more defensive industry. This supports our interpretation of CALI’s beta value discussed above. Next, we will examine the fundamental factors which can cause cyclicality in the stock.

How CALI’s assets could affect its beta

During times of economic downturn, low demand may cause companies to readjust production of their goods and services. It is more difficult for companies to lower their cost, if the majority of these costs are generated by fixed assets. Therefore, this is a type of risk which is associated with higher beta. I examine CALI’s ratio of fixed assets to total assets to see whether the company is highly exposed to the risk of this type of constraint. Considering fixed assets account for less than a third of the company’s overall assets, CALI seems to have a smaller dependency on fixed costs to generate revenue. Thus, we can expect CALI to be more stable in the face of market movements, relative to its peers of similar size but with a higher portion of fixed assets on their books. However, this is the opposite to what CALI’s actual beta value suggests, which is higher stock volatility relative to the market.

What this means for you:

You could benefit from higher returns during times of economic growth by holding onto CALI. Its low fixed cost also means that, in terms of operating leverage, it is relatively flexible during times of economic downturns. In order to fully understand whether CALI is a good investment for you, we also need to consider important company-specific fundamentals such as China Auto Logistics’s financial health and performance track record. I highly recommend you to complete your research by taking a look at the following:

Financial Health: Is CALI’s operations financially sustainable? Balance sheets can be hard to analyze, which is why we’ve done it for you. Check out our financial health checks here.

To help readers see pass the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price sensitive company announcements.

The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned.